Published by Free Malaysia Today on 11 October 2012.
Shares in Lynas Corp Ltd plunged 19% today as it faced another delay in opening its rare earths plant in Malaysia, raising the prospect the company may need to shore up its funding with a share sale. A Malaysian court yesterday extended a hold on the Australian company’s operating licence to Nov 8 while it decides whether to consider a review aimed at permanently blocking production at the US$800 million (RM2.5 billion) plant in Kuantan, Pahang, on the east coast.
Lynas received the temporary operating licence in September for the rare earths plant, the biggest outside China. It had aimed to start production this month, processing material from its Mount Weld mine in Western Australia, but said yesterday that would be delayed and gave no new timetable for the opening.
Its shares fell to a six-week low of A$0.69 in early trade and last traded down 16% at A$0.72, reflecting worries that the company will need to raise equity to shore up its funds the longer the delay runs. “Given the current delays, we believe the core tenet for our argument to sell Lynas is still applicable – namely risks surrounding funding, dilution, commission and waste disposal solution,” Foster Stockbroking said in a note to clients today.
Foster estimated the company, which had A$124 million in unrestricted cash as of June 30, would have only A$20 million in working capital available if the plant starts operating in November, and said it would probably need to raise funds through a sale of new shares. Lynas had A$205 million in total cash at June 30, but A$81 million of this can only be used for a future expansion of the plant.
Activists linked to the environmental group Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) want the court to suspend the licence until two judicial review cases challenging the government’s decision allowing the plant to operate are heard. Lynas had hoped to open the plant a year ago, but has been delayed by community protests. The company says that its plant is safe and is not comparable to a rare-earths plant in Malaysia that was shut by a unit of Mitsubishi Chemicals in 1992, after residents there blamed the plant for birth defects and a high rate of leukemia cases.
Another report: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/aussie-surgeons-malaysian-killer-to-be-sent-home-sydney-court-rules/
The Malaysian man who shot dead renowned Australian heart surgeon Dr Victor Chang in Sydney over two decades ago in a botched extortion attempt will be released on parole, after a Sydney court rejected an attempt by New South Wales Attorney-General Greg Smith to keep him behind bars.
Bernama reported that Liew Chiew Seng, who fired the fatal shots in a failed extortion attempt in 1991, was granted parole by the State Parole Authority last month. He was due to be deported to Malaysia by yesterday, but Smith had immediately appealed the decision. The case was dismissed today by the New South Wales Supreme Court.
Lawyers for Smith argued that to release Liew would “expunge” him of the remaining five years of his maximum sentence, because there would not be supervision for him in Malaysia. Liew, 69, is suffering from Parkinson’s disease and the parole authority was told earlier this year that time might be running out for him to leave Australia before he could no longer travel safely. He has been kept in the Long Bay jail in Sydney for more than a year past his 20-year minimum prison term.
The parole authority formed the intention to grant parole at a private hearing in May. The Serious Offender’s Review Council (SORC) and the Probation and Parole Service (PPS) both believe Liew will be unfit to travel if his health deteriorates further. A SORC report said Liew “was not sentenced to die in a NSW Correctional Centre. The overall fragility of his condition cannot be denied.”
The PPS report said it was “impossible to ignore Mr Liew’s deteriorating physical and mental health ... there is ongoing concern it will also continue to have a detrimental impact on Mr Liew’s capacity to return to Malaysia upon release”.
Liew was sentenced to a maximum 26 years in prison for firing the two shots that killed Dr Chang in a failed extortion attempt at Mosman on July 4, 1991. His partner in the murder, and the offender who provided the gun, Phillip Choon Tee Lim, was deported to Malaysia in 2010 after serving 18 years of his maximum 24-year sentence.
Australia’s first successful heart transplant was carried out by Dr Chang in 1984 and he was also voted Australian of the Century in 2000.
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